Wing Tips: Brokoff has Gladwin's Legion program on right track

Published 9:00 pm, Sunday, July 28, 2002

American Legion Baseball in Michigan is a dying breed. With the exception of areas such as Adrian and St. Joseph, the Upper Peninsula, and the Midland area, there are not many quality teams to be found.

In this area, Midland's Berryhill Post 165, Rosebush and Bay City have been the dominant teams. Generally, one of those three teams can be expected to compete in the state tournament as representative of Zone 4.

It has been a struggle to get more teams in the 10th District, of which Midland is a part. However, in recent years both Sanford and Gladwin have put together teams that are beginning to become competitive. Each year has shown some improvement on the part of each.

Although Gladwin was defeated by Berryhill 17-1 in Sunday's district final at Northwood University's Gerace Stadium, the fact that it finished runnerup has to be a boost for its program.

Manager Terry Brokoff has been affiliated with the team since it began 11 years ago.

"It's good for the program," he said. "We've just got to get the kids to come out and play ball."

During the tournament, his roster was reduced to 11 players because of injuries to a couple of others.

Brokoff is proud of the way the program has progressed. In the early days it was difficult to be competitive. That's no longer true as shown by Gladwin's 3-2 record and runnerup position in the district tournament.

One of the most satisfying wins was the 6-5 victory over Rosebush. It showed the team's character as it refused to listen to the so-called experts who didn't give it a chance. Some spectators were even heard to speculate that it would be a mercy-rule win for Rosebush.

In addition to building community pride, American Legion teams also develop ballplayers. Several American Legion graduates from the Midland area have gone on to have good careers at the Major League level. Far more have experienced good careers in college.

That's another thing of which Brokoff is proud.

"We've had about 17 boys go through the program and play college baseball. That's pretty good," he said.

Manager Steve Cronkright of Berryhill is impressed with what Brokoff has managed to accomplish with Gladwin, discounting Sunday's easy win.

"Terry has done a really good job of being aggressive. He's got the one real good pitcher (Andy Rivard). They hit the ball real well, too," he said. "You have to take your hat off to Terry. They went as far as they could, then they ran out of pitching."

Now that Gladwin has had a taste of what it's like at the championship level, Brokoff hungers for more.